Orso
Orso, the game-changing restaurant from Andre Ursini, has so many of the small details right.
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36 Kensington Rd, Rose Park
(08) 8364 1008
The handle to the glass front door is a polished timber block that demands to be stroked. Step inside and the greeting will make you feel the most important person in the room. Look around and take in the brickwork, the marble, the sunset-glow of the feature wall and the kitchen that has the floor-span of your average two-bedroom flat.
Orso, the game-changing restaurant from Andre Ursini, has so many of the small details right. An uncompromising vision and what must be a scary level of investment has turned a grand but neglected old bluestone manor on Kensington Rd into the user-friendly dining and wining hub the eastern suburbs didn’t know it needed.
To one side is Willmott’s Gastronomia, a bar, snackery and providore with shelves full of pickles and preserves. On the other is the restaurant-proper that opens to a courtyard when the weather is kind.
The menu is a broadly Mediterranean compilation that includes a trio of pastas but is as much Spanish as Italian.
Vegetable dishes shine. A bowl of savoury custard is crowned with peas, leaves and tendrils, drizzled in a green mint dressing, and finished with a grating of fresh horseradish. It’s like a day spa for your insides.
Grilled zucchini ribbons on a cushion of house-made ricotta play a similar game.
Octopus tentacle is poached, then grilled on the kitchen’s huge fire pit, and laid over a rustic stew of chickpeas in a tomato sauce pepped up with melted nduja (spicy salami).
The “market fish” is flounder, slathered in the house take on XO sauce, which replaces the traditional dried seafood with parmesan, pancetta and mushrooms.
Ricotta parfait, topped with a fast-melting fennel sorbet and lemon cream, is the kind of dessert you want when already feeling full.
- Hours: B Sun L|D Tues-Sat
- Bill: E $9-$26 M $24-$52 D $16-$17
- Wine: Wine list
- Chefs: Will Doak
